It’s difficult to fathom out exactly what is going on with performance. ‘Continued performance optimisations’ is a bit too vague really.
There is no question that performance has definitely not improved for SU9 beta. In some instances it’s better but in others definitely worse. The sad fact is that the Main Thread is just being relentlessly pounded to such an extent that at times it’s making the game almost unplayable.
I had a 3900x alongside my 2080ti when the game first released and at that point the game was reasonably balanced and I got good performance. This was pre-SU5. I then swapped my 3900x for a 5900x and the game then became very much GPU limited around SU5.
As things stand I now cannot load the 2080ti up enough to balance my system out. I’ve got it at 100% render scale in 4K, everything Ultra and the sim is still CPU limited. Around SU5 it was 85% render with a mix of High and Ultra. Only very occasionally can I now get the GPU working to it’s max level.
The stuttering on the ground is down entirely to the Main Thread being overloaded. The obvious solution is to turn the TerrainLOD down but even that is no longer a reliable win. I usually have it at 250. At inibuilds LHR with AIG traffic at 75% and my TerrainLOD right down at 80 I’m barely getting 20-25fps. The second I’m through a couple of hundred feet I can slide that back up to 250 and get my capped 30. Not long back at the Premium Deluxe LHR I could have AIG at 100% and be getting my capped 30fps. Something is definitely not right there.
In short, I’m not sure what these optimisations are, or what it is they’re meant to do, but the end result doesn’t seem to be translating on to our screens. If this is laying the groundwork for DX12 and is a temporary issue then please say so. The load on the Main Thread has to be reduced, or this sim is going to grind to a halt. I think the sim is remarkable but it seems like we’ve tipped over the edge of what’s possible in DX11, and it’s time to go all in on DX12 as soon as possible. The load must be spread across the CPU more efficiently.
I had the issue happen in Australia yesterday at a location with a smaller airport and mostly very flat with higher terrain off in the distance. The sim would freeze for a few seconds just trying to pan my view - both inside and outside the cockpit. It also froze a couple of times while executing a turn.
I’m on the latest SU9 beta. I had not had freezes before that were that long - I thought the sim had locked up & crashed at first but then if I waited it would come back. Much more severe then judders.
Thinking it might be a server side issue, since I keep all online stuff except multi-player enabled, I disabled the online functions and went into offline mode. The scenery looks terrible by comparison so it’s good confirmation you’re “offline”. However, even in offline mode I had these new long freezes!
If it was just a PG issue, or other data streaming issue, then shouldn’t that have been eliminated by going into offline mode?
I don’t get any long freezes per se, but if I enable developer mode, my MainThread graph appears red. I do believe server issues may play a part in it, but I don’t think that is the whole story, as you seem to have discovered.
I was flying from YPBO Paraburdoo yesterday and flew from there again today with the stock C172 (G1000) and had the same issues: long freezes when looking around inside or outside the aircraft and even when turning. I also get the freezes sitting on the runway ready for take off while changing views.
Although I thought to try going offline yesterday, which didn’t improve the situtation, I didn’t think of trying some flights around my usual haunt (CYYJ) so I did a couple flight from there as well as a flight from YLRE. Those flights were fine. So, there’s something about the area around YPBO that is causing the issue for me and it’s repeatable.
I’d be curious to try a couple of the locations where others are experiencing “freezes” (not judders) to see if they happen for me too at those locations.
I experienced the same at KSLC airport the other day. I lowered TLOD all the way to minimum and my MainThread graph was still in the red. The second I turned off photogrammetry, the situation improved. I have a 8-core/16-thread Ryzen 7 CPU that is heavily underutilized.
Things are looking good on my 5900x/3090/32GB of RAM. This is Low-end settings, Terrain LOD of 25, yes, just 25. Object LOD 25, and rendering scale of 50 (1920x1080). PMDG DC6, Flightbeam KPDX, AI Off.
Taking my MainThread out back behind the barn…
Oddly enough High-level settings are basically the same FPS. Even ULTRA are only about 3 FPS less. I am also aware of the XML gauges trick with DC6 which will take it up to about 29 FPS.
Was your photogrammetry on for that pic? That’s what my MainThread looked like until I turned PG off, which reduced my MainThread time by at least 20ms. Whether the MainThread is still getting hammered with PG off, I’m not sure.
I am not (yet) seeing any boost by turning off PG. Will keep testing.
KSLC is my main testing airport. I love the short flight over the Salt Flats to KENV. Allows me to test from heavy city performance to empty country. Allows me to see the best and worst performance in one flight.
Thanks Jayne – for what its worth, several of us are experiencing these “micro stutters” and terrible FPS loss when panning camera and we’re not on Steam.
MS store user here. I don’t get stutters that make the game unplayable on the ground, but my FPS drops to the high teens low 20s whenever I’m close to the ground and it becomes worse at bigger airports in photogrammetry areas. In these areas, when panning around I do get heavier stutter that take the sim a while to think and frames will drop below 10 briefly. Really ruins the immersion. The handcrafted KJFK is a good example of where this is evident.
Either way the main thread seems to get slammed the most on the ground which causes most of the stuttering issues and frame drops regardless of using the log book or not.
At my departure airports i have no problem whatsoever with performance and everything is smooth as it can be, when i do the return flight in the same session i get horrible fps at the origin airport even when i had a smooth performance at departure there. It is so frustrating, MSFS Store Version.
This is my issue 100%. NOT connected to spinning circle/logbook. MS Store user here. Handcrafted KATL is another good example; any big airport near photogrammetry, really.
Thank you using the Bug section, using templates provided will greatly help the team reproducing the issue and ease the process of fixing it.
For anyone who wants to contribute on this issue, Click on the button below to use this template:
